Over 20 years of writing about my club in Barnet matchday programmes, which sold to about 500 souls on a good day, now with this Blog Site everyone can read my ramblings, memories, interviews, experiences, features, guides to away grounds and pure love of everything Barnet Football Club. Enjoy and digest and tell your friends.
Reckless - Potters Bar March 2014.
Oh Yes, thank you to"Al" without whom.......that is all

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BOBBY BROWN

Next
in the spotlight is a player who spent only two years at Underhill
but was a goal-scoring sensation

Every
club and its supporters craves a goalscorer, someone who simply does
his job and scores goals. A goal in every three games is more than
acceptable, one in two is exceptional, but 64 in 67 appearances is
simply staggering and that's the record of Robert Henry “Bobby”
Brown at Barnet between 1958-1960.

Bobby
was born in Streatham in May 1940 “My father, who was a north
Londoner, had always been a keen Barnet supporter following them all
over the country and as a 7 year old I would watch players like
Lester Finch, Dennis Kelleher and Rob Phipps. It took forever to get
to High Barnet on the Underground from South London” recalls Bobby
with a smile. “The club won the Amateur Cup and were a real force
in Amateur game at the time”.

Brown
arrived at Underhill thanks to his father's connections and Manager
George Wheeler in the summer of 1958 aged just 18. Barnet's skipper
during the 1950's was the legendary Alf D'Arcy who described Bobby in
his own inimitable fashion, “A very gifted centre forward, lean and
so quick but unusually with a sharp brain to go with it! He would
take a row with a centre half in his stride and yet out-think his
opponent, and he was incredibly fit too”.

Bobby's
41 goals in all competitions helped the club win the Athenian League
in 1958-59 and reach the FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley in April
1959. The following line up narrowly lost 3-2 to Crook Town with
Bobby scoring both goals:

Brian
Goymer, Jim Duncan, Micky Cooper, Alf D'Arcy, Bobby Cantwell, Roy
Sleap, Roy Drake, Dennis D'Arcy, Bobby Brown, Tony Harding, Johnny
Welch. “That team was like second family and that sums up the
feeling I have about Barnet to this day, I have very fond memories of
the club still”.

The
following season injures restricted his appearances but the club
finished runners up in the League with Bobby scoring 17 goals.

Bobby
represented Great Britain at the 1960 Rome Olympics and played in all
three group matches - the 3-2 win over Taiwan, the 2-2 draw with
Italy and the 3-2 defeat to Brazil. He scored in all three games
with two goals against the Brazilians who featured future World Cup
Winners Carlos Alberto and Gerson in their line up.

Bobby (front row far left) with Great Britain 1960

The late great
BFC PR guru Dennis Signy covered the Games for the Daily Mirror and
News of the World. Dennis once told me “Bobby was a powerhouse and
the most approachable of all the players for a quip or a bit of
inside info. Unfortunately Britain failed to progress into the
knock-out stages”. He
also toured with the FA XI in Summer 1961, playing in a number of the
games against the New Zealand teams, and he scored hat-tricks against
both Otago and the Minor Provinces”.

In
early September 1960 he moved to First Division Fulham but not before
signing off at Barnet with a hatrick in the FA Cup against Hounslow
Town at Underhill. He retained his amateur status at Craven Cottage
balancing his day job as a buyer with Cricket Bat manufacturers
Stuart Surridge. While at Fulham he played with Johnny Haynes,
George Cohen and Jimmy Hill before a move to Third Division Watford
where he spent two seasons. “Fulham were such a generous club to
be a part of and they really looked after their players”. At
Vicarage Road he signed his first professional contract. “We lived
in South Oxhey in club accommodation and I remember thinking for a
while had I done the right thing?”

Bobby Brown (crouching in suit and tie) with the 1959 Barnet Squad

In
1963 he arrived at Northampton Town making over 50 appearances and
scoring 22 times . “The move and wages helped me to buy property in
Northamptonshire and I spent three good years there playing in the
First Division” said Bobby.

In
October 1966 Bobby moved again but this time in a £15,000 deal to
Cardiff City.

As
the club's top scorer he won a Welsh Cup winners medal that season
allowing City entry into the European Cup Winners Cup. During their
successful run 1n 1967-68, when the club reached the Semi Finals
loosing to Hamburg over two legs, Bobby partnered the soon to be
Liverpool legend John Toshack in attack. While at Cardiff Bobby made
54 appearances scoring 24 goals.

A
knee injury sustained in a First Division game at Aston Villa in
October 1967 tragically ended Bobby's career at the tender age of
just 27. Lord knows what he would have gone on a achieve as he really
was approaching his prime as a player at that time. “I had had
niggling ankle problems since I was at Watford but I damaged my
cruciate ligaments and spent 6 months in plaster. It was obvious I
would never play professionally again but I put my coaching badges to
good use while getting fit again. I played in pre season games and
training and I did have an offer from Yeovil Town but that was the
era of a club wanting a player/coach and I had been told by the
Cardiff doctor that if I played regularly again I would risk being
confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my like. I listened to his
advise and took up a position liaising with South Wales schools and
becoming youth team coach at Ninian Park for the next 10 years.

Bobby
then invested in a pub/restaurant and an adjoining caravan site near
Haverford West in South West Wales and only fully retired some two
years ago. “My wife Joy and I now have a beautiful farm house in 30
acres and I am very happy”.

On
a rather chilling note Bobby told me that as a past Olympic Athlete
he was invited to a reunion of comrades at Wembley Stadium for the
London 2012 games but took seriously ill on route. “There was the
statue of Bobby Moore, who I had played with as a youth, right in
front of me! Luckily paramedics were on scene quickly enough because
I ended up in University College Hospital with blood clots as a
result of aPulmonary
Embolism. It was very serious but I pulled through thanks to the
expertise of many people. It was ironic that that was the first time
back at Wembley for me since 1959, so I don't have a lot of luck when
I visit there do I?” he laughed.

Thankfully
he is fully recovered now and insisted that I E mail him the dates of
the remaining Barnet home fixtures at the Hive. “It's funny but I
only said to Joy the other day that it would be lovely to visit the
new facilities at Barnet and perhaps meet up with Alf again?” he
revealed. “Next thing is I receive a phone call from you - can you
help with that Reckless?”

I have
now another rather pleasant task in being involved with a reunion of
two great players from Barnet Football Club's past and indeed two
parts of its very heritage – “it will be a pleasure Bobby” I
replied.

1 comment:

Yesterday , I had the great pleasure of spending the day with the charming Bobby Brown - courtesy of my having worked with Bob's fellow 1960 GB Olympic team mate , Hughie Lindsay . Two other GB men there - squad captain Mike Greenwood and reserve keeper Brian Wakefield. Also there was John Harding , the man who had been named a skipper but who missed the final tournament because of a broken arm. Bob Brown - some player (even better bloke)